CREDIT RATING

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:06): My question is again to the Treasurer. Why has the government abandoned the budget target to 'achieve at least a net operating balance in every year', a target that has been in place for seven years, including the Treasurer's first budget?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Treasurer, Minister for Workers Rehabilitation, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:06): I have been asked the same question three times. Again, because the decline in the revenues has meant that it was not going to be possible to achieve surplus in each financial year; that it would not be possible to achieve a surplus to the net operating balance until 2014-15. That is what we have got in the MYBR. The new target is that we achieve return to surplus by the end of the forward estimates period.